Evaluation takes place in a social context that influences research design, selection of variables, the written report, and the timing of its release. There are also consequences for program implementors, for those subject to the program, and for the evaluators. Evaluations and evaluators may become involved in political conflict within the subject system and conflict external to it as well. The present study makes use of archival data to illustrate the issues in evaluations of the Gary plan of education that took place between 1914 and 1918. Suggestions for confronting political and social realities surrounding evaluation emerge from an application of concepts deriving from the sociology of knowledge . is a truism that every cultural artifact is touched and influenced by its social surroundings.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.